1. The Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to the use to X-ray computed tomography to measure the contribution of secondary (vugular) porosity to the overall pore volume in a reservoir sample.
2. The Prior Art
Previous methods to quantify vugular porosity in core material are limited to petrographic image analysis of thin sections. This has two well-known problems: (1) inherent inaccuracy due to the two dimensional nature of the measurement and (2) very limited sample volume. The present invention addresses both of these limitations by making a three dimensional measurement of the entire core volume.
Examples of prior art methods for examining earth cores may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,982,604; 5,036,193; and 5,058,425, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.